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NuSTAR
The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array Mission
(NuSTAR) is an X-ray mission with the first focusing optics for hard
X-rays (above 10 keV).NuStar is led by Caltech and managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
It was launched on June 13, 2012 from a Pegasus XL rocket
near the Kwajalein Atoll, and placed in a low-inclination low-Earth orbit.
Initially deployed for a two year mission, it continues to collect data.
Mission Characteristics
Lifetime : July 2012–present
Energy Range : 3–79 keV
Special Features : the first hard X-ray focusing optics
at higher X-ray energies.
Payload :
- Two coalined Conical Wolter-I mirrors focusing X-ray onto two Focal Plane Module
Detectors (FPMA an FPMB).
- The mirrors consists of 133 concentric conical multi-layer mirror shells.
The mirror shells are coated with Pt/SiC and W/Si multilayers atop thin sheets of flexible glass,
with graphite spacers between nested layers.
They are mounted on a mast that was extented in space to provide a focal lenght of 10 m.
A Metrology system of two lasers on the optics end that are pointed at three light-sensing detectors at the detector end
of the telescope.
Angular resolution: 58" (HPD), 18" (FWHM)
FoV (50% resp.): 10' at 10 keV, 6' at 68 keV
- The FPM detectors are Cadium-Zinc-Telluride (CdZnTe) rectangular crystals, 20 x 20 x 2 mm
in size, divided into 32 x 32 gridded arrays of pixels.
The detector privides an energy Resolution (FWHM): 400 eV at 10 keV, 900 eV at 68 keV
The detectors are surrounded by Cesiun Iodide (CsI) crystals as active anti-coincidence detectors to
register and reject background from high energy photons and cosmic
rays entering the detector from off-axis directions.
Science Highlights:
- conducted a survey of black holes, monitor the mechanisms of their growth, and
the radiation from infalling matter
- study processes at the core of jet structures around super-massive black holes
- map remnants of recent stellar explosions (novae, supernovae, and hypernovae)
- study compact stellar remnants (black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarf stars)
- provide insight into the solar corona and giant flares
Archive: HEASARC hosts Event data , products and catalogs.
[NuSTAR at HEASARC]
[NuSTAR at CalTech]
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Page authors: Lorella Angelini Jesse Allen
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Last modified: Thursday, 24-Sep-2020 17:21:49 EDT
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